USA

ByCompiled from wire service reports by Ross AtkinNovember 6, 2007

The shuttle Discovery undocked from the International Space Station Monday after successfully installing a new pressurized compartment, moving a massive solar-energy tower, and making a repair to one of the tower's ripped panels. Above, astronaut Clayton Anderson, who's been in space for five months, appears happy before beginning his flight home. The shuttle is expected to land Wednesday.

President Bush continues a busy week hosting world leaders Tuesday at a White House dinner with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will address a joint session of Congress Wednesday. The visit occurs after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's meeting with Bush and before the president's discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest bank, announced the widely expected departure of Charles Prince Sunday as the chairman and chief executive of the beleaguered bank and named Robert Rubin, former US Treasury secretary and past co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., as the company's new chairman. A search for a new chief executive has begun.

The New England Patriots, now 9-0, kept their hopes alive Sunday to become the first National Football League team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to complete a perfect season. With two fourth-quarter touchdown passes by Tom Brady (above, shaking hands with coach Bill Belichick), the Patriots erased a 10-point deficit in the last 10 minutes for a 24-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts, the defending Super Bowl champions, in a battle of unbeatens. The Colts are 7-1. The season is 16 games long.

Teenagers Brittany and Robbie Bergquist of Norwell, Mass., will be honored Tuesday for raising nearly $1 million and donating 2.5 million phone-card minutes to US soldiers. The project is one of several to receive the first Above and Beyond Awards, cosponsored by the United Service Organizations and Microsoft to recognize efforts to brighten the lives of US troops.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said he was unaware that businessman Philip Martin, a co-chairman of his campaign, had a criminal past and only learned of it in a Washington Post report Sunday. Thompson said he wouldn't dismiss his friend over a 1979 drug charge and 1983 probation violation.